Finally! An LED 3157 bulb that's bright enough! Now with video!

[SUPERMN]

i emailed autoillumanation and this is what they said to do?

If they work properly in your socket, but the colors are just backwards, then there is a simple fix. All you have to do is bend each of the the wire contacts on the bulbs to the oposite sides.

Be very careful though, the wire contacts will snap off if they are betn back and forth.

is this just swapping all 4 wires, 2 from one side to the other and vice versa or just 1 wire from each side?? cause wouldnt swapping to the other side be the same as spinning the bulb around in the socket??

 

[ManySHOs]

i emailed autoillumanation and this is what they said to do?

If they work properly in your socket, but the colors are just backwards, then there is a simple fix. All you have to do is bend each of the the wire contacts on the bulbs to the oposite sides.

Be very careful though, the wire contacts will snap off if they are betn back and forth.

is this just swapping all 4 wires, 2 from one side to the other and vice versa or just 1 wire from each side?? cause wouldnt swapping to the other side be the same as spinning the bulb around in the socket??

If there's a chance that they'll break, I'd rewire the sockets. That said, I'm not a fan of modifying the car to get a modification to fit properly. Will they exchange them for the right product?

Ian

 

[Kens1992mtxSHO]

Hey Hamal, what headlight bulbs do you have?

 

[SUPERMN]

If there's a chance that they'll break, I'd rewire the sockets. That said, I'm not a fan of modifying the car to get a modification to fit properly. Will they exchange them for the right product?

Ian

im sure i could but he makes it sound like its not a issue with the bulb, cause i told him that someone with the same car is running the SMT version and he asked if he was running a load equalizer cause if there working on his then these should be working fine for mine but did say the circuitry in the SMT is a lil diff and thats what i mite need to buy then.
Heres the whole email he sent me.

There are multiple ways to wire the 3157 bulbs. Most are standard, but there are variations.

The bulbs operate on a simple priciple. They light white if there is power to one of the wires and amber if there is power to the other wire.

They default to amber if there is power on both wires.


Here is how they are wired:

http://autolumination.com/images/auto_bulbs/3157 3156 wiring.jpg

If they work properly in your socket, but the colors are just backwards, then there is a simple fix. All you have to do is bend each of the the wire contacts on the bulbs to the oposite sides.

Be very careful though, the wire contacts will snap off if they are betn back and forth.

I am not sure I understand though that they are exaclty working oposite. There may be other issues with the way the wires are connected. You also may need load equalizers.

Basically, you need to make sure that the wires to the socket are connecting to the proper contacts on the bulb to make it do what you want it to do. In addition, you have to verify that the circuit is behaving the way it is supposed to with the led installed.

The + turn signal circuit should be energized when the turn signal is activated and the + running light wire should be energized when the lights are switched on.

 

[SUPERMN]

anyone know what wire is the ground wire to the park lamps?? theres black, brown and green w/ white stripe? i should just be able to reverse the 2 pos wires rite to switch this around?

 

[Racer X]

i emailed autoillumanation and this is what they said to do?

If they work properly in your socket, but the colors are just backwards, then there is a simple fix. All you have to do is bend each of the the wire contacts on the bulbs to the oposite sides.

Be very careful though, the wire contacts will snap off if they are betn back and forth.

is this just swapping all 4 wires, 2 from one side to the other and vice versa or just 1 wire from each side?? cause wouldnt swapping to the other side be the same as spinning the bulb around in the socket??

That was going to be my recommendation. Just bend the metal contacts on the bulb from one side to the other (for all 4 contacts), insert, ???, profit! (hopefully).

 

[hawkeye18]

Ground wires are almost always black. Brown is probably the park lamp illumination, while green w/ white is probably the turn signal pulse. Being fairly familiar with ford wiring conventions, I can almost guarantee you that.

And, having looked at the EVTM, I can tell you with absolute certainty that that's the way it is. Swap the two wires that aren't black in the connector; you should be fine.

 

[SUPERMN]

well ive tried all that,lol! swapping the wires the best i can get is all white in park and blink white or keep it how it was and be amber and blink white. I did it the hard way by trying evry color combo possible,loL! ( but on the park socket it says GRD for green/white, MAJOR for brown and MINOR for black?? if that means anything is green the ground then?)and the only way i can get it to do white w/ white blink is the Green/white and black wires connected, no brown, flipping the pins around i get a steady brite white no blink or nothing. the guy from autoillumination seems to think i either need the 30 smt bulbs cause something in the circuitry will make it work diff or i need load equilazers for the ones i got now?? this is the last email i got from them a lil while ago.

Well the problem is that the filament style bulbs have no interconnections internaly between the two filaments. Also, the filament will not light with low voltage applied, so the circuit can apply some cross voltage and the filament bulb will not respond.

The led on the other hand will respond to even a slight voltage sensed across either circuit and the two circuits are interconnected internally since they each must be able to light the same led.

We have found that load equalizers seem to resolve these problems quite often, but if the same style car is using the 30 led uscessfully, that is a simpler solution. It is probably just a slight difference in the voltage tolerance than allows the 30 led to work with no mods.

 

[SUPERMN]

well figured out the problem, well really stumbled across it lol! the 194 sidemarker bulbs were messing them up. I just so happened to order a pair of SMT 194 bulbs and i got them in the mail today so i switched them, as soon as i did the switchback bulbs started blinking the right color so now there in and working and i must say the 20 LED are BRIGHT too, with just my parklamps on it lights up my whole driveway, i dont think i need fogs or headlamps anymore :laugh_ti: heres 2 quick videos of it, sorry couldnt do it all in one vid but you get the idea

 

[ManySHOs]

Ground wires are almost always black. Brown is probably the park lamp illumination, while green w/ white is probably the turn signal pulse. Being fairly familiar with ford wiring conventions, I can almost guarantee you that.

And, having looked at the EVTM, I can tell you with absolute certainty that that's the way it is. Swap the two wires that aren't black in the connector; you should be fine.

Actually, for the taillights, black is sometimes hot and the ground is white. They follow the same code for trailer wiring. I don't know about the fronts; I haven't messed with them.

http://www.etrailer.com/faq_wiring.aspx

Ian

 

[SUPERMN]

yeah i found out by blowing a fuse, black is the ground,loL!

 

[Vnuk1]

Hey Hamal, what is the LOM you speak of to not get a lamp out light?

 

[Racer X]

The Lamp Out Module. IIRC, it's above or to the right of the glove box.

 

[Vnuk1]

Like behind or under?

 

[hawkeye18]

If you let down the glovebox all the way like you're gonna mess with a tweecer, you will see the top edge of the opening for the glovebox. Put your wrist on it, palm-up, and curl your hand up. You should be able to feel it, or its cable harness. That top edge is sharp; try not to slit your wrist on it.

 

[SHOclass]

Ok so I went on the autoilluminations.com link from the first post and it brings you to a page with 10 different options and LED style lights. Other than the fact that the website looks like my 8 year old nephew made it, how do you differentiate between the different options?

 

[hawkeye18]

Ok so I went on the autoilluminations.com link from the first post and it brings you to a page with 10 different options and LED style lights. Other than the fact that the website looks like my 8 year old nephew made it, how do you differentiate between the different options?

http://autolumination.com/switchback.html

It is a pretty atrocious website, and there's no easy way to differentiate, really.

Make sure you get the warranty if you get the switchbacks; I had one fail quickly and since I didn't get the warranty I was SOL.

 

[Vnuk1]

Alrighty sir...